Chase Freedom Increased Sign-Up Bonus

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For a limited time, Chase has increased the sign-up bonus on the no annual feeChase Freedom®. This is one of my favorite no annual fee credit cards. The sign-up bonus is marketed as follows:

For a limited time, earn a $200 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening

Earn a $25 Bonus after you add your first authorized user and make a purchase within this same 3-month period

The sign-up bonus is marketed as cash back

In reality, you earn points on the Chase Freedom®, and each point can be redeemed for one cent cash back.

In other words, the sign up bonus offers 20,000 points after making $500 of purchases in the first three months, and an additional 2,500 points after adding an authorized user and having them make a purchase within three months, for a total of 22,500 points.

However, if you have this card in addition to one of the cards that accrue “premium” Ultimate Rewards points, you can transfer these points to Ultimate Rewards. Cards that accrue “premium” Ultimate Rewards Cards include the:

What makes the Chase Freedom great

So what makes this no annual fee card so rewarding even if you have other cards with annual fees that offer category bonuses?

The Chase Freedom offers 5% cash back (five points) per dollar spent on rotating quarterly categories, which can translate into a huge return. When you register your card each quarter you then earn 5x points for the first $1,500 spent in those category.

Having no annual fee cards are great for your credit score

As if the huge rotating quarterly categories weren’t enough, keep in mind that one part of your credit score is the average age of your accounts. It’s good to keep some cards long term just to help increase the average age of your accounts, even if the card itself isn’t that rewarding.

In this case you’re getting a rewarding credit card which you can also keep open long term to help build your credit score.

This is the best sign-up bonus you’ll see on this card

Back in the day this card regularly had 20,000+ point sign-up bonuses. But over the past couple of years the standard sign-up bonus has been $100 cash back/10,000 points.

We’ve occasionally seen increased sign-up bonuses of $200 cash back/20,000 points. But with this bonus you can earn $225 cash back/22,500 points, which is the best I’ve seen.

Bottom line

If you don’t yet have the Chase Freedom®, I suspect this is as good as the bonus will get. I picked up the card late last year after waiting way too long, and am really happy to have it.

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About luckyBen Schlappig (aka Lucky) is a travel consultant, blogger, and avid points collector.
He travels about 400,000 miles a year, primarily using miles and points to fund his first class experiences.
He chronicles his adventures, along with industry news, here at One Mile At A Time.

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Comments

Lucky — firstly i hope your trip with your dad continues to go well and that you don’t let your demanding readership cut too much into family time! Contradicting what I just said, I have a quick question. I currently have Chase Sapphire, Chase Ink, Starwood Amex, and United MileagePlus Select. A couple of weeks ago you posted about some Amex no fee cards. How would you compare them versus this card if I was planning on picking up one more card? I have a fair amount of spend and, when possible, like to do the sorts of aspirational award redemptions you frequently talk about on the blog.

A month ago, I referred my wife for the chase freedom. Yesterday, they bumped her bonus from the 10K offer to 20K. She also for 2.5K for adding me as an au and I got 5K for referring her, so 27.5K total. Win. Win. Win.

I called chase customer service with the phone number on the back of my freedom card, and the lady said “unfortunately, you applied for the credit card before this sign up bonus was in affect and as a result, we are unable to award you the additional bonus points.” What a b****! So, I just hung up, and sent a secure message through the chase website like “Points with a crew” said. They responded saying they are going to honor my request and I will get the additional 10,000 bonus points! Thanks, Points with a crew!

First of all, the lady didn’t have the most positive tone and didn’t seem all that friendly. Secondly, no it is not official policy, but in most cases when you ask to get the most recent sign-up bonus, it is common knowledge that chase honors those requests. So, in this situation, the lady was being mean because she did indeed have the power or at least the power to refer me to someone who can update my account to reflect the new sign-up bonus, but she chose not to. Lastly, I wasn’t even really saying it in a serious manner, but more garnered to my sense of humor, which I can understand does not come across well over the internet, so I of course excuse you 🙂

is it possible to get and hold multiple’s of the Freedom card? I already have one (it is Visa) but I’d like to pick another one up if I can. I know that back when they switched over from Mastercard to Visa, that you could hold 2 Freedom’s since they were considered ‘different’ products. and I also know that the bonus can only be had once every 24 months for any given ‘product.’

I suppose I may have just answered my own Q, but if anyone else has any other insights that’d be much appreciated as a heads up.

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